With so pathetically scanty a representation of Villa-Lobos's piano music in the catalogues at present, the appearance—however belatedly in the composers's centenary year—of these two discs is cordially welcome. Both are splendidly played and recorded, and fortunately their programmes overlap only minimally, with the little As tres Marias (sparkling in both versions, but the third piece played far more slowly by Ortiz) and a single movement from the fourth of the Bachianas brasileiras. I have always regretted that Freire did not record the complete work, especially as the 40 minutes for which this disc runs now seem particularly meagre; but for this reissue in a new format the opportunity might have been taken at least to correct the misprints and poor translation of the original notes. Freire's major work here, played with spectacular virtuosity, is Rudepoema, a violent and noisy musical portrait, so it is claimed, of Artur Rubinstein, who did so much to champion Villa-Lobos's cause: his other main offering is the Baby's dolls suite, of which Rubinstein's 1961 recording is still current (RCA RL42024, 5/83) but this is much preferable, both for clarity of articulation—the ''Little wooden doll'' could not be better played—and the greatly superior recorded quality.
For successful performance of Villa-Lobos's music it is necessary not only to cope with its formidable difficulties but to shape it convincingly, and this Cristina Ortiz does with sensitivity and imagination. Her biggest work here is the Ciclo brasileiro, in whose first piece she is poetic, in the second flexible, and the exciting and exotic last two brilliantly incisive. She takes the outer sections of the Aria of the Bachianas faster than the composer prescribes, and in its Chorale her jungle bird (one of the few not noted down by Messiaen) is a trifle too obtrusive at first, at first, but these are not details to dwell on. The late Simple poem starts like updated Chopin but contains two contrasting episodes, one impassioned, the other scintillating; the Broken musical-box has a charming delicate humour; and the Waltz of grief is curious in that, though its 12/8 rhythm may in general be read as four fast triple-time measures, elsewhere it is inescapably four-in-a-bar. (Why, incidentally, does Ortiz play a C natural instead of the printed C sharp in the very last bar?) The remainder of her programme consists of stylized Brazilian dances (as in the second Saudade, played with a sense of fantasy) and, in seven pieces from the vast Practical guide, arrangements of children's songs, though too difficult for children to play: especially delightful are a ''Samba'' and the lyrical ''A little dove flew away''. More, please....'